By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com -- The Dow closed higher Wednesday as cooling Treasury yields persuaded investors to pile back into growth stocks including tech despite ongoing hawkish remarks from Federal Reserve officials.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.4%, or 435 points, the Nasdaq was up 2.1% and the S&P 500 climbed 1.8%. The Nasdaq snapped a seven-day losing streak.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) led big tech higher, up more than 1% and 2% respectively, while Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) ended nearly 1% higher after unveiling a slew of new products including its iPhone 14, iPhone 14+, and high-end models iPhone 14 Pro and a larger iPhone 14 Max.
Prices for the iPhone 14 will start at $799 and the Plus will cost $899, with preorders starting on Sept. 16 and Sept. 9, respectively. The iPhone 14 Pro will cost $999 and iPhone 14 Pro Max will start at $1,099.
Analysts have talked up the prospect of Apple’s new phone triggering a strong upgrade cycle as many iPhone customers haven’t upgraded their phones in years.
“Our estimates [are] that 240 million of 1 billion iPhone users worldwide have not upgraded their phones in over 3.5 years,” Wedbush said in a note.
Apple also released its Apple Watch Series 8 and new AirPods.
Twitter (NYSE:TWTR), meanwhile, gained more than 6% after a Delaware Court rejected Elon Musk’s request to delay a trial launched by Twitter seeking to stop the billionaire from walking away from a deal to buy the social media company.
The court did, however, allow Musk to add whistleblower claims related to security vulnerability and fake user accounts on the platform to his countersuit.
Tech, which has been under pressure in recent days, was also boosted by easing Treasury yields.
Fed vice chair Lael Brainard said Wednesday that monetary policy will need to be restrictive for some time and added that the central bank would need to see “several months of low monthly inflation readings,” to be sure that inflation is slowing to the Fed’s 2% target.
The remarks from the Fed vice chair arrived just hours before the Fed's beige book showed that the central bank was preparing for "generally weaker" growth ahead as inflation dents consumer pockets.
Other growth areas of the market were also in the ascendency, powered by rallying retailers, with Ross Stores Inc (NASDAQ:ROST), TJX Companies Inc (NYSE:TJX) and Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) among the biggest gainers.
Energy was the sole sector in the red following a 5% slump in oil prices as weaker economic data from China stoked fears that slowing global growth will dent demand.
"Oil's breakdown today is a bigger shot across the bow, pointing to further struggles ahead in our opinion. We believe the commodity can break below $80 from here, targeting the mid-$70s range in the weeks ahead," Janney Montgomery Scott said.